taking steps to make it all better…

Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

Well, my co-workers are having quite a bit of success on their diet. Apparently their clothes are fitting better. I am happy for them but I’m not sure how healthy the diet portion is (one of them had bad diarrhea on one of their cheat days). I am tempted to tell them that quite a bit of their success is probably due to exercising but I’m going to stay quiet.

Paulette and I are continuing to eat in and really make some great meals. We’re saving money and really getting good nutrients. I really want to include a wider variety of vegetables in my diet but I will need to find some recipes for that.

I have also been watching my alcohol consumption. All in all I’m smoke free for 3 weeks and binge alcohol free for 2 weeks. I need to up my mileage (as far as running is concerned) but other than that things are moving along smoothly.

Two of my co-workers have been talking about a diet they are going on for the next month or so. I explained my views on dieting (and how ineffective I feel it is), but that’s about as far as I’m going. One of the two is morbidly obese while the other is overweight.

The overweight co-worker’s boyfriend has apparently lost 24 lbs in three weeks. It breaks down to a low sugar diet where one has oatmeal for breakfast and lunch along with 2 fruit or yogurt snacks throughout the day, diner consists of a low fat meal of meat and vegetables.

It should be interesting to observe most of this unfolding as I have never really seen this first hand. They have already been discussing what to do when… situations where friends bring over sugar loaded foods etc. One good thing that is coming of this is that they are both going to start exercising (since that is apparently also part of the diet). I also decided to have them break down the diet for me it it came to a ~800 calorie diet. *sigh* The humorous thing is that they are quick to criticize one of their friends for going on a 500 calorie diet (apparently the 300 calories makes all the difference).

I honestly can’t understand the need for immediate results at the risk of health. Work around life and try your best to live healthy. Make choices that your body will appreciate and get exercise. Be conscious of what you are eating and enjoy it. Don’t just shovel food into yourself. Look at it and appreciate it as it will sustain you. I guess I have an odd way of looking at things but I feel if people truly did that they would be able to live healthier.

I’ll probably update this as things progress. I’m probably more excited than they are. 😀

Dunkin’ Donuts has a new menu for customers watching their health and weight. The “DD Smart” menu, which will debut in stores Aug. 6, will feature new flatbread sandwiches. Customers will be able to choose either a turkey sausage egg-white sandwich or a vegetable egg-white sandwich. Both will be under 300 calories with 9 grams of fat or less, the company said.

“We just felt it was important to provide some choice in our menu,” said Will Kussell, president and chief brand officer.

The new menu will also include current menu items that have 25 percent fewer calories, sugar, fat or sodium or are made with more “nutritional ingredients”. Current products that will join the new sandwiches on the menu include a multigrain bagel, Cofee Coolatta with skim milk, Iced Latte Lite, a reduced-fat blueberry muffin, and more.

Hopefully in the future, success of this ‘smart’ menu over their old offerings should drive them to make this their ‘regular’ menu. I am strong proponent of fast food joints offering smarter choices not in special menus but making those choices the norm. It’s all about small steps and this decision by Dunkin’ Donuts provides a step in the right direction.

A new rule requiring chain restaurants in New York to post calorie information on their menus took effect this past Friday. The regulation defines a chain restaurant as one that has 15 or more outlets across the country. In New York, the rule affected 2,000 restaurants or 10 percent of the total in the city. Among them are such restaurants as McDonald’s, Burger King, Applebee’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks and Subway.

The rule also states that caloric information must be presented in the same font and format as the price and name of the food item. Health inspectors may issue fines from $200 to $2,000 for establishments not in compliance.

I hope the rule makes it nationwide. This will prevent people claiming ignorance about the unhealthy nature of meals they consume. It will also serve as reality checks for people consistently consuming fast food. Several customers have claimed to be unaffected by the advent of the rule, if it changes a few decisions a week, I think it’s well worth it.

The enforcement of this rule would definitely affect the way I sometimes attack the dollar menu at fast food restaurants.

With the latest cases reported as of July 14 according to the latest figures posted on the Web site of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nationwide toll from Salmonella Saintpaul now stands at 1,167 people in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Canada.

An initial investigation of the outbreak, in New Mexico and Texas, suggested raw tomatoes as the likely source of the contamination. But a larger, nationwide study comparing persons who fell ill in June found that those who were sickened were likely to have recently consumed raw tomatoes, fresh jalapeno, serrano peppers, and fresh cilantro.

The source of the outbreak shrouded in mystery, one could easily fall into the panic mode the media promotes. Statistically the chances of getting infected (even with these new cases) remains slim. I for one am not going to avoid these foods (I love all 4 of them). I choose to simply wash and more importantly cook them to avoid any of the problems. Let’s not freak out… Stay smart either avoid the foods or cook them and remember even if you do eat them raw, your chances are still slim.

A truly amazing concept, a panoramic view of cultural diversity from a diet standpoint. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats dives into the dietary habits of a spectrum of families from different countries featuring pictures of each family behind 1 weeks worth of food. The artists behind this novel concept, photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D’Aluisio, visited some 30 families in 24 countries.

This post does not contain all of the families featured in the book but does show large portion. Some things worth noting include the horrific packaging of foods in developed nations. One quickly sees why the industrialized nations produce so much trash. Other visible facts includes the lack of fresh fruits, vegetables, and other produce in the US families. The reality being the cost and convenience of being able to store prepackaged foods for a long period of time while having foods that are quick to prepare.

Another Earth Day passes on, little attention, no change. Most people hold the thought process that one person cannot make a difference. Why not make the change, spread the word, and invoke change in others? At any rate this post is going to expose some truths of the livestock industry and its impact on Earth.

In his 1975 bestseller, The Eco-Spasm Report, futurist Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock and The Third Wave, suggested a positive hope for the world’s crisis. He anticipated “the sudden rise of a religious movement in the West that restricts the eating of beef and thereby saves billions of tons of grain and provides a nourishing diet for the world as a whole.” This has not come to fruition, if anything, the opposite holds true.

Statistics show that Nigeria’s per-capita meat consumption is approximately 6.4 kilograms a year, China’s is about 23 kg, but, Canadains consume an average of 65 kg a year and the citizens of the US eat 95 kg. This shows the meatcentricity of Western society.

People do not view meat consumption in the same light as other commodities. Most associate over-consumption with gas, electricity, and water. A quick analysis of meat, where it comes from, and what goes into producing it provides insight into the true cost of producing meat.

Like all the products we buy, meat is made up of inputs. The largest are water, grain, land, and energy. Others include hormones to promote growth, antibiotics to prevent disease, and fertilizers and pesticides to grow the feed

To produce a kilogram of grain-fed beef, it takes, on average, 10 kg of grain and 680 liters of water (only what the animal consumes). In comparison, according to a study in California, 1 kg of tomatoes requires 190 liters of water, 1 kg of potatoes requires 198 liters of water, 1 kg of wheat requires 209 liters of water – but 1 kg of beef requires a whopping 43,500 liters of water (this takes into account the water needed to grow the feed along with the water needed to raise the animal). Even rice, which uses more water than any other grain, requires one tenth the water needed to produce meat.

In order to meet our demand for meat, millions of tons of grain are diverted to feed livestock. More than 1/3 of the world’s total grain harvest is fed to livestock. Another requirement to raise livestock is land. An equivalent amount of land can feed six times more people eating a plant-based diet than people eating a meat-based diet.

Besides consuming an immense amount of resources, livestock also creates large amounts of garbage. Production of 1 kg of edible beef leads to 40 kg of manure. The manure and urine waste, plus the pesticides and fertilizers used to grow feed, are among the largest sources of water pollution in North America. With the population steadily increasing and the average person consuming more meat, the consequences could be disastrous.

Having said all this, I by no means am promoting vegetarianism. I feel the awareness of these facts can lead to people eating healthier by substituting some meat meals with vegetarian meals. Everything in moderation. In addition I feel that grain diverted to human consumption could solve some of the world’s hunger issues. We can all make a difference, every little bit will help. Let’s make some changes if not for the environment, at least for ourselves.